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How can I increase my APM?

I'm level 30 and have nearly 500 games and my roommate (an avid Starcraft player) just explained for the first time to me how APM can be crucial as it allows you to react more quickly in critical situations, like during ganks and teamfights and in general when things go haywire. It was kind of like an already-fat kid getting introduced to cake for the first time.

I've played FPSes since forever. I've played titles from the Unreal and Battlefield series competitively. Actions per minute did not matter here -- I erred on the more precise, accurate side of things. It was about being careful with your clicks. I've never played RTS.

So my click speed sucks hardcore. My other suitemate who also plays LoL has around the same W/L (he's more than 600 games though) but probably has around a dozen times the APM (I'm not joking). During intense situations I feel I participate a lot less effectively than he does.

TL;DR: How much does APM matter in LoL? How can I, a click-miser, get better at this?

"APM" in starcraft is, for the most part, a joke. Many players spam actions (clicks) excessively, making them appear to have a high APM, but in reality many of those actions are simply redundant and superlative. Good SC2 players' APM (indicated on the APM tab in replays) aren't spamming a move command in 1 spot 30x to show their high APM. In fact, in most replays with lower ranked players, you see them start off with absurd APM's like 400+ when really all they are doing is right clicked a mineral patch 20x, then when they get in a fight, it drops to 40.

How does this translate to LoL? In MOBA games, like really any other game, the universal rule of "stop moving and you're dead" still applies. Since you're an FPS player, you know that when you have a dogfight with someone, you strafe, jump, juke, etc. - same goes for LoL. Try to maintain movement at all times - between casts, move - between auto attacks, move - between last hit's, move - etc. This will do several great thins for you:
1) make you harder to predict and to hit with skill shots and AOE
2) keep you more aware and ready to react
3) shows the enemy that you are ready to react, making them more hesitant and more likely to make mistakes

Another thing linked to "APM" is your health/mana. If you're losing health, it's probably because you are getting harassed because you are standing in 1 spot and are an easy target. Juke in and out of bushes repeatedly, make think, "wtf is going on? are they setting up a gank on me?" The other thing is mana. If you have a full blue bar as any champion, you're probably doing it wrong. This doesn't mean blow all your mana, but like in SC2, you don't want to bank 2k resources simply because you don't know what to do with them, bust instead banking 2k might be ok if you are going for a push and need replenish your army after a fight. Same for mana, don't need it to me 0, but its 100% you need to cast something.

I guess that's all I can really think of. Move between shots/casts and keep an eye on mana/health/minimap. Keep in mind, over spamming commands doesn't make you better, it will just make you have to buy a new keyboard/mouse earlier.

Well, raising your APM in LoL is kinda hard, but not impossible. You dont have 40+ units to manage, no macromanagement to do, etc... We do know that all the top Elo players are using this hardcore, and is the key of winning LoL. So here's a few tips.

1-Click everywhere, all ALL time. I always laugh when I see people at the start of the game, clicking once to go to their lane, and just look at their champion walking. Everytime I'm like... ****, are these kids mad? while im clicking the **** out of my mouse to that turret. If you can click 6 times per second, just before minion spawn, you'll be around 500 actions ahead of everyone else. And thats not an advantage you want to overlook.

2-In fights: I see many people completely missing the point of the game. Some are just happy to click the enemy champion once and let the moveto/autoattack do the job. Wrong thing to do. Click the enemy champion as much as you can. You might sometime end up targeting a creep by mistake and lose focus, but hey, the enemy champ will end up with what? 100-200 more hp? You'll end up with an insane APM. You're the man!

3-Character selection: Try to pick a champion with skillshot. Morgana, Malzahar, Ezreal, all are good choice. Pick that ability first. You'll have 1:45 min to spam the hell out of it at the start while people who need to target their skill will end up having to click repetedly around their towers.

4- When dead:yup, dying, especially end game, will really hurt your APM. To make up for this, the best way is to save a lot of money. Find something relatively cheap, that can stack. HP pots are the best. Buy as much as you can, sell them, repeat. You'll have to sacrifice a lot of gold but hey, do you really want your apm to drop by that much?

5-Turbo buttons. Lot of people wonder how clg won the WCG with underpowered champions like Ashe, Annie or Amumu? Yup. Turbo button kids.

Even in Starcraft 1 you should never "Aim for higher APM". There's True APM and then there's just APM..True APM matters because it's actions that are not repeated. You will play faster and more precise, and this is what's important, but always prioritize precision over speed. Trust me.